Endings and Beginnings
by The Celestial Princess
Summary: What happens when Lucy dies?


**So one night i decided that if Lucy died, Natsu wouldn't go back to Lisanna, he would go to Gray, and since I can only really write during the night, this was written over like four nights, so it's quite disconnected. Also it probably switches back and forth between past and present tense. I'll probably keep editing it though. I hope you like it!  
**

* * *

 _New beginnings are often  
_ _disguised as painful endings  
_

 _-Lao Tzu_

* * *

The rain was pounding on the ground, drowning out all other noise except for our tears. If you had flown over us, you would have seen a field spotted with black, our umbrellas and outfits making the funeral even more miserable. I know she would have wanted a bright, colourful sendoff, but Lucy was our energy, her effervescent sparkle making us feel better when we were down. Now she's gone, and the guild has gone dull. I never realised how much Lucy was holding the guild together, but now we have fallen apart. We stand in clusters, everyone relying on the support from their loved ones, who in turn were leaning on them. But I stay slightly apart from everyone else, alone with my misery. It was my fault. Technically, I killed her. I remember it, crystal clear. It haunts me in my sleep.

* * *

We were on a grassy hillside, near a river and a cave. We had just managed to get the book of E.N.D, and were trying to destroy it. The eight of us, me, Lucy, Erza, Gray, Gajeel, Wendy, Levy, and Juvia, as well as Lucy's celestial spirits, had been taking turns throwing spells at it, but so far, though it had taken some damage, nothing had worked. In our last battle, Zeref had told me that I was E.N.D, and it stood for Etherious Natsu Dragneel, but until now, I hadn't believed him. When I started taking damage when the book did, though, it was hard to deny. When my friends noticed, I just shrugged it off as battle injuries. I was determined to destroy E.N.D, no matter the cost.

It was Lucy who suggested it. She had noticed that none of our attacks were doing enough damage, and realised that we needed a stronger attack. She had used all her keys to their time limit, and everyone else was running out of magic as well, but then she had an idea. "Hey, Natsu! We should try a unison raid!

I had a bad feeling about it, but as it was the strongest magic I could think of that we had the ability to to and hadn't tried, I agreed. We moved into the tango-like position, and cried out "Unison Raid!"  
The magical blast of rose-gold power shot out and hit the book straight on. It rose up slightly and started to shake and glow. We held our breath in anticipation. Was this it? Had we finally defeated the book of E.N.D? But when the book started to shake harder and glow even harder, I knew something was wrong. Suddenly, a beam of dangerous blue light shot out, heading straight for Lucy.

Lucy cried out for help as the magic enveloped her screaming in pain as it inflicted injury after injury. I ran forwards, trying to pull her out, to save her, but the glowing ball wouldn't let me in. We watched helplessly as Lucy was battered, growing weaker, her screams fading out, until the blue light evaporated and dropped her on the ground. We ran forward immediately, picking her up and cradling her, asking if she was OK. She lay there, unresponsive, and when I saw that the spark in her eyes had gone out, I let out a cry of anguish. The book must have had a charm on it, meaning that if it got almost fatally damaged, it would reflect that damage back to the caster. As I was E.N.D, the full power of our unison raid was directed at Lucy.

* * *

Someone walked up to me. I turned around, surprised. "It's not your fault, you know," said his comforting voice. Gray. He had always been my rival, my competition. But as a warmth seeped into my body, I realised that something had changed.  
"We're all beating ourselves up about it, even Juvia. But there's no point in blaming anyone. We had no idea what was going to happen. We were only trying to save Fiore."  
I just went back to standing there, staring at the ground, and feeling even worse than before. Somehow Gray sensed this, and simply said "follow me," and led me off, away from the funeral.  
We walked for a bit, and when we stopped, I looked around at where he had taken me. I was confused at first, but then I saw the cave with the river. It was where Lucy had died.

I started to pull away, but Gray tightened his grip on my arm and whispered "stay."

He pulled me around to face the landscape before me. In the few days that had passed between Lucy's death and her funeral, the scene had changed quite a bit. While it was raining heavily at the funeral, out here it was beautifully clear and sunny. The previously muddy stream and dank, dark, cave had transformed into a glittering brook and a cozy grotto. But the biggest change of all was the flowers. Most of the previously bare hillside was now covered in blooms of all shapes and colours, creating a stunning piece of art. There were peonies next to forget-me-not's, daisies next to tulips, and in the center of them all was one big rose. It's petals were golden and silky like her hair, and it shimmered like her laughter.

Gray had come up behind me again and was hugging me, his chin on my shoulder. "See?" He said, his voice unusually soft.  
"Yes," I replied. "Thank you." Thank you for showing me this, thank you for helping ease my guilt and sadness, and thank you for helping me see that even though she's dead, Lucy still isn't gone. We sat just inside the mouth of the cave, Just talking and laughing, until I leaned over and kissed him. Over the course of today, Gray had gone from my rival and friend to something more, and I felt the need to tell him, even if by doing so I wrecked our friendship. To my surprise, though, instead of pulling away and stalking off in disgust, he leaned into me, and kissed me back.

As the sun set, the area was bathed in a beautiful peachy coral light, and we were a highlighted silhouette kissing in a field of flowers.

* * *

 **So, there it is! What do you think?**


End file.
